The Ephraim Brasher regulated Brazil 1754-B 6400 Reis ranks among the most important American-related gold coins of the post-Revolutionary era. It began life as a Brazilian gold coin. Then it entered the hard-money economy of New York, where Ephraim Brasher marked it with the same EB punch known from the famous Brasher doubloons. Stack’s Bowers sold the coin for $168,000 in its Spring 2023 auction of the Sydney F. Martin Collection.
A Brazilian Gold Coin With a New York Story
The host coin is a Brazil 1754-B 6400 reis, often called a half joe. PCGS graded the coin AU-53. The coin weighs 181.0 grains today.
The coin shows heavy evidence of practical use. A plug enters from the reverse and reaches the center. A gold pin fills a drilled hole and sits flat near the central reverse. Brasher’s EB in oval appears at the central obverse. Stack’s Bowers notes that this is the same punch used on the Brasher doubloons.
The edge tells another part of the story. The coin shows circumferential clipping to the tops of the legends. It also has a false vertically reeded edge. That work likely hid the clipping. When Brasher regulated the coin to the 1784 Bank of New York standard, it would have weighed 216 grains. Later, someone likely reduced the weight again. The Stack’s Bowers catalog suggests that this later work may have occurred in or near the West Indies.
Even so, the coin retains great visual appeal. The surfaces show rich yellow gold. Magenta and coppery tones surround the devices and borders. Sparse hairlines appear, but major marks do not dominate the coin.
Why Brasher’s EB Mark Matters
Ephraim Brasher was more than a craftsman. He was a New York goldsmith, silversmith, assayer, patriot, and civic leader. The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies him as Ephraim Brasher, American, baptized 1744–1810.
Brasher built his reputation through fine metalwork. Heritage notes that his EB counterstamp gained wide recognition as a guarantee of quality and value. Moreover, the Smithsonian explains that his EB mark on foreign gold coins showed that he had tested or assayed them and stood behind them.
Brasher also moved in the center of early national life. In 1789, he lived at 1 Cherry Street, next door to George Washington at 3 Cherry Street. Washington also bought silver from him. In addition, Brasher served New York as sanitary commissioner, coroner, assistant justice, election inspector, and commissioner of excise.
Then, in 1792, Brasher performed assays for the United States Mint under Treasury instructions. This point matters. The federal Mint could not yet conduct all assays through its own staff, so it relied on outside specialists such as Brasher.
The Brasher Doubloon Connection
Collectors know Brasher best for the 1787 Brasher doubloon. The New York-style doubloon shows a sun rising over mountains on the obverse and a heraldic eagle on the reverse. Heritage reported that only seven New York-style specimens exist. One sold for $9,360,000 in 2021.
That context gives this regulated 1754-B 6400 reis its power. The coin does not merely carry an EB mark. It carries the same punch linked to America’s most famous private gold coinage.
A Star of the 1914 ANS Exhibition
For generations, this coin introduced scholars to regulated gold. Waldo Newcomer acquired it in B. Max Mehl’s 1913 sale of the H.O. Granberg Collection. Then he selected it for the 1914 American Numismatic Society Exhibition.
Newcomer did not choose ordinary coins for that display. He loaned only five pieces. Alongside this Brasher-regulated 6400 reis, he showed a silver Continental dollar, a Getz half dollar in copper, a silver Myddelton token, and a Standish Barry threepence.
The coin gained more importance in 1915. That year, Newcomer discovered the 1742-dated Brasher Lima-style doubloon. Wayte Raymond, William Woodin, and Edgar Adams then examined the new discovery as the ANS Committee on United States Coins. They cited this exact 1754 coin when they discussed the EB counterstamp. They also noted Newcomer’s 1754 piece with an EB counterstamp on an inserted gold plug.
Later, Walter Breen cited the coin in his 1958 ANS paper, “Brasher and Bailey: New York Coiners.” Breen identified it as a Brazilian half dobra of 1754 from the Bahia Mint and connected it to the Newcomer Collection and the 1914 ANS exhibition.
Market History and Provenance
After Newcomer sold his colonial coins to B. Max Mehl in 1931, this coin disappeared from public view. It returned in 2005, when Heritage sold it as part of the Gold Rush Collection. Heritage described the coin as a 1754-B Brazil 6400 reis struck at the Bahia Mint, plugged and counterstamped by Ephraim Brasher. It realized $19,550 on January 12, 2005.
That result came just before regulated gold coins gained wider market attention. In April 2005, the Eliasberg world gold sale helped expand the category. A Brasher-regulated guinea brought $43,700. By January 2008, when Sydney F. Martin acquired this 1754-B 6400 reis at Stack’s Americana sale, the coin’s value had more than doubled.
Its provenance now reads like a guide to serious American numismatics: H.O. Granberg Collection; B. Max Mehl, July 1913, lot 1137; Waldo Newcomer Collection; B. Max Mehl, 1931; unknown intermediaries; Heritage, Gold Rush Collection, January 2005, lot 30014; Stack’s Americana sale, January 2008, lot 7002; Sydney F. Martin Collection; Stack’s Bowers Spring 2023, lot 1047.
A Landmark of Regulated Gold
This coin traveled through several worlds. It began in Brazil. It reached New York during the age of foreign gold circulation. Brasher tested it, regulated it, and marked it. Then it continued through the Atlantic economy. Finally, collectors turned it into a landmark object.
Today, the Ephraim Brasher regulated Brazil 1754-B 6400 Reis offers more than rarity. It gives collectors a direct link to New York commerce, early American assaying, the West Indies gold trade, and the legacy of the Brasher doubloon.
